Thursday, December 28, 2006

Will a White Knight save Air America.....?

They are losing affiliates, possibly losing their marquee talent Al Franken, they have filed for bankruptcy, and Clear Channel, one of the companies that was intent on clearing stations for AA, is going thru a sale. It's anyone's guess what the future holds and what form Air America will take in the future.

I know there is a lot of water cooler talk and Monday Morning quarterbacking about AIr America's troubles and how they came to be in the difficuly they are now.

In radio, everyone's an expert. ;-)

Newsweek published this peice which is a pretty good overall analysis of the Air America situation.

"Less than three years after launch, Air America's last hope lies in finding a white knight."

"The prevailing sense among media watchers, though, is that Air America is a failed enterprise. The only question is why."

"One former Air America CEO who asked to remain nameless due to the network’s ongoing negotiations said, "in the beginning, the network was plagued by infighting between those who saw it as a political cause that would take years of dedicated subsidizing, and those who saw it as a viable business venture capable of turning a profit off the bat. “The latter group of people were deluding themselves,” he said, noting that the programming costs never came close to matching up with revenue opportunities, particularly as companies such as Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Visa and Exxon began pulling advertising from Air America affiliates. “It was doomed by their lack of realism.” According to former and current Air America employees, the network was also undone by the tension that existed between the 100 or so moderately compensated production staffers, and the handful of well-paid executives."